The Neon Demon, Elvis & Nixon and The Legend Of Tarzan: Your Week In Film (October 31-November 6)

Fashion beast: The Neon Demon is a transgressive treat

DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and TV highlights for the next seven days...

Nicolas Winding Refn is at his most fuck-you divisive in The Neon Demon (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) WWWW, a film that merges horror, satire, high camp and the occult to thrillingly transgressive effect. Elle Fanning plays Jesse, newly arrived in Los Angeles with big ambitions to make it in the cutthroat world of fashion modelling. Her disarming youth and rabbit-in-the-headlights innocence prove an instant hit with photographers, agents and stylists, and it isn't long before she's beating more experienced models to the top jobs. How they loathe and envy her.

Refn takes his time showing Jesse's career ascent but there's an unease tick, tick, ticking away in the background that no amount of cloudless LA skies or beautifully composed tableaux can eradicate. Death and danger permeate every frame here - from the opening shots of Jesse covered in blood for an amateur photo shoot to the recurring images of predatory big cats. You know something bad's coming, it's just a matter of when and how. And when Refn eventually turns up the batshit crazy to maximum, it's well worth the wait - a final half-hour involving cannibalism and necrophilia that fair takes the breath away (Jena Malone will still be asked about one particular scene if she lives to be a hundred).

Gratuitous? No, simply the perfect conclusion to the themes and ideas Refn (Drive) has laid out so masterfully throughout the rest of the film. We live in a culture that chews up and spits out youth and beauty - quite literally in The Neon Demon's case.

Elle for leather: Jesse is drawn into danger in LA

Necrophilia of a different kind now as The Pelvis and Tricky Dicky are dug up and put centre stage for the umpteenth time in Elvis & Nixon (DVD and VOD) WW. Loosely based on a true story and a famous photograph, Liza Johnson's film imagines what really happened when the King of Rock 'n' Roll turned up at the White House one December morning in 1970 to directly petition the president to make him an 'FBI agent at large' (Elvis thought he could go undercover to turn the kids of America away from drugs and radical politics). A broad comedy from which neither character emerges unscathed, it has a certain breathless pantomimic appeal, and Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey acquit themselves well in the titular roles.

The Legend Of Tarzan (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) WW features another blast from the past as Fantastic Beasts director David Yates becomes the latest filmmaker to have a go at adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs's most famous creation for the big screen. The main problem, I suspect, is that the idea of a white English posho lording it over black Africans is, in these more enlightened times, seen as somewhat racist. Yates and his team tackle this obstacle head on and make a decent fist of repositioning Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) as an honourable cove with nothing but love and respect for the tribes he and wife Jane (Margot Robbie) encounter. Putting the iniquities of the 19th Century slave trade front and centre – and giving Samuel L Jackson a sizeable role in proceedings – help too. Skarsgård is suitably butch and brooding as the titular character and Christoph Waltz adds another bravura villain turn to his CV. In a year that has given us the visual delights of The BFG, Doctor Strange and The Jungle Book, some of the CGI wasn't always convincing though.

TV-wise this week you could do a lot worse than check out Joy (from Friday, Sky Cinema Premiere, 13:45 and 20:00) WWW, David O Russell's underrated biopic of Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano, an American celebrity who isn't particularly well known in the UK. It boasts a great cast (Jennifer Lawrence as the titular character, Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper) and has some interesting things to say about the entrepreneurial spirit and American capitalism too. Far from being an unalloyed endorsement of the latter, as some critics suggested, Russell's film explores the murky side of business and how dipping your toes into that world can make a person not just tenacious and determined but utterly ruthless too. It's a story of lost innocence in which Lawrence is, of course, terrific.

Strictly business: Joy Mangano gunning for success

Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens is all ripped abs and convincing Yank accent in The Guest (Saturday, Film4, 21:00) WW as David, a soldier with a very dark secret. It’s one of those “stranger-danger” thrillers so popular in the ’80s in which an innocent family, couple or person is first befriended then menaced by some insidious outsider (see Fatal Attraction, Single White Female, Pacific Heights etc). Action-packed and genuinely funny in parts (Stevens, it turns out, can do comedy too), The Guest lands a couple of slyly satirical jabs square on the jaw of the US army which is probably what I liked about it most.

There's nothing remotely funny or satirical about the soldiers featured in Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty (Friday, More 4, 21:00) WWW. The film, which details the CIA's decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks on New York, was rightly hauled over the coals upon its release for implying information obtained by torture had been utilised successfully in the investigation (it hadn't). However, if you can get over that fairly large obstacle, a slow-burning but genuinely gripping piece of work is your reward.

The excellent Jessica Chastain is Maya, a CIA black ops agent who becomes slowly more obsessed with tracking down the Al Qaeda bogeyman (if Zero Dark Thirty is about anything, it's about obsession). Chastain's role is an astonishingly unglamorous one as she spends the entire film either angry, exhausted or both. Maya is given no external life to speak of - her mission defines her utterly. That kind of narrative austerity is of a piece with the rest of the movie which, far from being the gung-ho spectacle I'd anticipated, lays out the ugliness of the 'Get Bin Laden' operation in some detail.

We see alleged terrorists tortured and brutalised, we see men and women gunned down in cold blood by US Navy SEALS, we see young children terrified for their lives - all in the name of bringing down one man. It's nasty, tawdry work and Bigelow offers up little to cheer, even after Bin Laden's elimination. The Hurt Locker may have won her an Oscar but this is a much better film.

Manhunter: Bin Laden is the target in Zero Dark Thirty

A couple of quickies to end with: Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley in James Cameron's thrill-a-minute Alien sequel, Aliens (Sunday, Syfy, 21:00) WWWW, while online subscription service MUBI have just the thing for that Halloween night binge-watch - the original Scream trilogy WWW, which does the meta horror thing better than anything before or since.

What I'll be watching this week: Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner I, Daniel Blake must be doing something right as reactionary pond life (Camilla Long, Toby Young and Iain Duncan Smith) are queuing up to condemn it. Also, Film 2016 (Wednesday, BBC1, 23:15) returns for a new run of eight shows. Presenter Claudia Winkleman is gone, to be replaced, Have I Got News For You-style, with a different host each week. Zoë Ball kicks things off, with Danny Leigh and The Independent's Ellen E Jones on hand to provide critical insights into the week's new releases, which include Nocturnal Animals and The Light Between Oceans. Plus, director Damien Chazelle talks about his new musical, La La Land (which is marvellous).

Ratings

WWWW - Wonderful

WWW - Worthwhile

WW - Watchable

W - Woeful

The Last 5 Films I've Seen

Ghouls just want to have fun: Ghostbusters brings the laughs

1. Barbara (2012): Emotionally and morally complex '80s-set German drama from Christian Petzold, who directed last year's superb Phoenix. Petzold's regular collaborator Nina Hoss is the titular Barbara, an East German doctor exiled to a rural town from Berlin after she applies for an exit visa. Planning to defect to be with her West German lover, Barbara is shadowed by the Stasi, who regularly ransack her room and subject her to humiliating strip searches. Mistrust looms large as Hoss keeps her new colleagues at arm's length, including Ronald Zehrfeld's head physician André, and a palpable sense of paranoia informs the whole thing. But, ultimately, it's a tale of sacrifice and perhaps learning to make the most of what you have. Hoss is, as ever, tremendous and, although low-key, the film skewers Soviet-era Communism quietly and effectively. Rating: WWWW

The good German: Nina Hoss is tremendous in Barbara

2. Summertime (2015): Post-Blue Is The Warmest Colour, any French drama concerning a lesbian love affair is inevitably going to be compared – probably unfavourably – with Abdellatif Kechiche's controversial Palme d'Or winner. But Summertime shouldn't be dismissed so lightly as its a powerful and pleasing piece of work in its own right. Set in 1971, it tells the story of farm girl Delphine who travels to Paris and gets caught up in the city's burgeoning feminist movement. She meets Spanish teacher Carole, and the pair begin a relationship. However, when Delphine's father falls sick, she returns to the farm with the older woman in tow. The pair have to keep their affair a secret from conservative locals, while Delphine struggles to square the circle of wanting to be with Carole but also needing to support her family. It isn't as instantly lovable as Blue... but neither does it fall victim to the graphic clumsiness of that film's sex scenes (although, being French, there is nudity in abundance). Izïa Higelin and Cécile De France are terrific and believable in the lead roles, director Catherine Corsini and her cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie bring the beauty of rural France crackling to life and, come the ending, there won't be a dry eye in the house. Rating: WWW

A place in the sun: Summertime is a fine romance

3. Ghostbusters (2016): With Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, The Heat) in the director's chair, Parks & Recreation's Katie Dippold on script duties and Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig leading the cast, there was no way this female-centric remake of the beloved '80s supernatural comedy was ever going to fall flat... whatever the micro-penised trolls of the Internet wanted us to believe otherwise. It might not be as good as the original, could have done with one or two more killer gags and McCarthy is oddly subdued, but it had me smiling from beginning to end, and laughing out loud on at least a couple of occasions (Chris Hemsworth as dopey receptionist Kevin gets the best lines). In fact, there's a sense of joy about the whole enterprise, from Kate McKinnon's larger-than-life turn as nuclear engineer Holtzmann, to some nicely judged cameos from the original cast (Murray! Aykroyd! Weaver! Hudson! Slimer!). Rating: WWW      

Slimelight: Ignore the haters, Ghostbusters is good fun

4. Green Room (2015): Jeremy Saulnier's horror/thriller sees a US punk rock band – The Ain't Rights – finishing an unsuccessful tour with a gig at a backwoods club boasting a worryingly far-right clientele. The group – which includes Arrested Development's Alia Shawcat and the late Anton Yelchin – stumble in on a murder scene and the rest of the film sees them desperately trying to escape before the club's nasty-bastard owner (Patrick Stewart, clearly relishing a turn for the villainous) and his mob of neo-Nazis can silence them. It's tense, intermittently thrilling, and brutal enough to make you flinch, but somehow feels a bit lightweight and straightforward when set against the perceptive exploration of revenge the director offered in Blue Ruin, his far better previous film. Rating: WW

Rock and a hard place: Things go south in Green Room

5. The Legend Of Tarzan (2015): When I was a kid, Tarzan was as much a part of UK pop culture as Doctor Who – I seemed to spend my life surrounded by comics, cartoons, TV shows and old films dedicated to the Lord Of The Jungle. Thirty-odd years down the line, though, Edgar Rice Burroughs's most famous creation has slipped so far outside the zeitgeist, he makes The Six Million Dollar Man look positively hip and happening. The main problem, I suspect, is that the idea of a white English posho lording it over black Africans is, in these more enlightened times, seen as an embarrassing evocation of Empire as well as incredibly racist. Director David Yates and his team tackle this obstacle head on and make a decent fist of repositioning Tarzan (Alexander Skarsgård) as an honourable cove with nothing but love and respect for the tribes he and wife Jane (Margot Robbie) encounter. Putting the iniquities of the 19th Century slave trade front and centre – and giving Samuel L Jackson a sizeable role in proceedings – help too. It could have done with more humour, some of the plotting is a bit clunky, and I wasn't always convinced by the CGI – especially if you set it against that featured in The Jungle Book. That said, Skarsgård is suitably butch and brooding as the titular character and Christoph Waltz adds another bravura villain turn to his CV. Ultimately, it tries to do too much but, as reboots of classic characters go, I've definitely seen worse. Rating: WW

Jungle fever: The Legend Of Tarzan has its moments

Ratings
WWWW - Wonderful
WWW - Worthwhile
WW - Watchable
W - Woeful

The Neon Demon, Son Of Saul and SPECTRE: Your Week In Film (July 4-10)

Devil in a new dress: Nicholas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon

This week's column is respectfully dedicated to the memories of filmmakers Michael Cimino (The Deer Hunter) and Robin Hardy (The Wicker Man), who both passed away last week...

TV, Radio, DVD, Blu-ray, VOD and cinema picks for the next seven days...

Monday 4th: Son Of Saul (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) is a profoundly moving film that left me feeling raw, dazed and utterly heartsore. The eponymous Saul (Géza Röhrig) is a Sonderkommando at Auschwitz (i.e. a Jewish prisoner forced by the Nazis into helping with the disposal of gas chamber victims). Desperately clinging to what's left of his humanity, Saul comes across the body of a young boy, takes him for his son, and pledges to give him a proper Jewish burial. László Nemes' Oscar winner captures the hell of the death camps with horrifying precision but it is never exploitative. In fact, because the director chooses to focus his lens almost exclusively on his lead, the film's most potentially disturbing images remain mercifully unseen. Nevertheless, there are scenes here to chill the blood, none more so than when Saul is part of a work unit shoveling the ashes of the dead into a nearby river. At times, the film's horror lies in its sheer matter-of-factness - a relentless, monotonous factory conveyor belt of murder. It had the same effect on me as Lars von Trier's Dancer In The Dark, a bravura but devastating piece of work I've found impossible to watch more than once. 

Bravura but devastating: Oscar winner Son Of Saul

It feels almost sacrilegious to mention a film as scatological as Grimsby (DVD, Blu-ray and VOD) in such close proximity to Son Of Saul. But, for all the critical negativity it copped, Sacha Baron Cohen's outrageous spy spoof, which also stars Mark Strong as the Ali G man's long-lost brother, made me laugh a great deal. Most of these gross-out comedies struggle to come up with one genuine 'you have got to be kidding me' moment but Grimsby has about half a dozen. Maybe us Brits just happen to do good, honest filth better than anyone else. Roman Polanski's 1972 film What? (Blu-ray) is a real oddity. It's a bizarre sex comedy that was pilloried on its release and is said to be the "most butchered, debated and least-seen film of the Oscar-winning director's entire career". Sydne Rome (Just A Gigolo) and the great Marcello Mastroianni (8½, La Grande Bouffe) star. Amazon's streaming service has recently added half-a-dozen films by Jim Jarmusch to its catalogue, including Mystery Train, Down By Law and Dead Man, starring Johnny Depp. Now You See Me 2 - which I mentioned last week - is in cinemas from today. 

Spies like us: Sacha Baron Cohen in Grimsby

Tuesday 5th: MUBI UK have temporarily handed over control of their programming to Nicholas Winding Refn, director of The Neon Demon (see Friday 8th). The Danish filmmaker has chosen seven films, most of which are available to watch now via the subscription streaming service. They include Dario Argento's bonkers giallo Suspiria, Federico Fellini's gorgeous, hedonistic La Dolce Vita and, from today, Gus van Sant dark comedy To Die For, which stars Nicole Kidman in one of her best roles, as a rapaciously ambitious TV weather girl.

Weather with you: Nicole Kidman in To Die For

Wednesday 6th: Belle (Netflix UK) is that rarest of cinematic offerings; a period costume drama that didn’t put me to sleep within the first 10 minutes. Set in 18th Century England and based on a true story, it chronicles the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle (beautifully played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a Royal Navy Captain. She is raised in splendour by her aristocratic great uncle (Lord Mansfield) but held back socially by the colour of her skin. She falls in love with a young abolitionist and together they set about trying to persuade Mansfield – in his role as the Lord Chief Justice – to refuse insurance to the owners of a ship who had thrown slaves overboard then tried to claim for them as “cargo”. Yes, it’s worthy and liberal, and yes, the usual costume drama tropes are all present and accounted for, but the racial tensions of the period give the material a real edge and modern perspective. The cast, which includes Tom Wilkinson, Penelope Wilton, Miranda Richardson and Emily Mortimer, is uniformly superb, while director Amma Asante is clearly destined for big success. The Legend Of Tarzan - starring The Diary Of A Teenage Girl's Alexander Skarsgård as Edgar Rice Burroughs' jungle hero, and current Hollywood go-to girl Margot Robbie as Jane - hits cinemas. No cameo for best-Tarzan-ever Ron Ely though...

Jungle fever: Tarzan's back and kicking arse

Thursday 7th: Sundance hit Brahman Naman (Netflix UK) looks like it might be enormous fun. The coming-of-age comedy is set in Bangalore in the 1980s and follows Naman, a high-school quiz champ, who, along with his similarly geeky mates, embarks on a trip to Calcutta for a major college quiz. The trio are out to win top prize... and lose their virginity along the way. The Film Programme (16:00, BBC Radio 4) features Rebecca Miller, the director/co-writer of Maggie's Plan (see Friday 8th), in conversation with Francine Stock. Tobe Hooper's disturbing, deranged The Texas Chainsaw Massacre hits MUBI UK, and there's more horror from The Exorcist: The Version You've Never Seen (23:50, TCM). This longer take on William Friedkin's classic chiller contains five major bits of added footage, including the infamous 'spider walk' scene.

Quiz kids: Brahman Naman was a hit at Sundance

Friday 8th: Three films I'm desperate to see are in cinemas from today (what's the betting my local Odeon shows not one of them?). The Neon Demon has already garnered much controversy and many a column inch for Drive and Only God Forgives mastermind Nicholas Winding Refn. Set in the LA fashion industry and starring Elle Fanning, it sees the Danish auteur dipping a bloodied toe into the horror genre, complete with cannibalism, 'aberrant sexuality' (whatever that is) and impractical frocks. In the UK, Anthony Weiner, the titular star of documentary Weiner, is probably only known to fans of The Daily Show and students of US politics. The Democrat congressman was disgraced and humiliated after a 'sexting' scandal during his 2013 bid to become mayor of New York. Given extraordinary behind-the-scenes access to its subject, Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman's film chronicles how both Weiner's political and personal life came to be torpedoed as a result. Greta Gerwig, Ethan Hawke and Julianne Moore is one hell of a cast and reason enough on its own to see 'anti-rom-com' Maggie's Plan. Gerwig plays the titular Maggie, a young woman desperate for a child and about to embark on an affair with a much-older, married man (Hawke). Gerwig was terrific in last year's sublime Mistress America so I have high hopes for this.

Refn ready: The Neon Demon is out on Friday

If you're staying home, check out Daniel Craig's reportedly final outing as James Bond in SPECTRE (06:00 and 20:00, Sky Cinema Premiere, also available on NOW TV). Sam Mendes' film starts with a bang – a brilliantly choreographed action sequence set amongst the crowds celebrating Mexico's Day of the Dead – but soon drifts off course. It's not bad but never comes close to matching the breathless thrills of Casino Royale or the nostalgic sock to the jaw that was Skyfall. Christoph Waltz (who is one of the best things about SPECTRE) is also the guest on this week's Kermode And Mayo's Film Review (12:00, BBC Radio Five Live), where he will be talking about his villainous role in the aforementioned The Legend Of Tarzan. The show is only on for an hour again this week (blame the tennis) so you'd be far better off listening to the podcast.

The thick of it: Weiner chronicles a career in meltdown

Saturday 9th: Ben Wheatley's High Rise is out on DVD and Blu-ray in a couple of weeks so this is a good time to check out his 2009 directorial debut, Down Terrace (01:55, BBC2). It centres on a Brighton crime family - a kind of cut-price Corleones - trying to root out the police informant responsible for sending their son to jail. As riotously violent and darkly amusing as you'd imagine. Seth Macfarlane's gratifyingly smutty Ted (21:30, Channel 4) is the tale of a hopeless man-child (Mark Wahlberg) and his best friend; a living, breathing stuffed bear with twin penchants for foul language and bad behaviour. Not sure what amused me most, the film itself or the po-faced reaction to Guardian film critics naming it their No.2 movie of 2012 (The Master was No.1). Ryan Gosling's the motorcycle stunt rider turned bank robber, Bradley Cooper the rookie cop with whom he's on a collision course, in powerful drama The Place Beyond The Pines (00:35, Channel 4).

Small-time crooks: Ben Wheatley's Down Terrace

Sunday 10th: Flatliners (23:45, BBC1) is a supernatural thriller which sees a starry cast - including Julia Roberts, Kiefer Sutherland and Kevin Bacon - playing medical students who conduct dangerous experiments as they search for the secrets of the afterlife. But their dabbling with nature's dark forces goes wrong and the gang soon starts to suffer nightmarish visions and hallucinations. Flatliners isn't one of director Joel Schumacher's best films - Falling Down, Phone Booth, Batman & Robin (only joking!) - but its stylish visuals, intriguing premise and breathless pace make it worth a look. Elsewhere tonight, there's a fine double helping of dark comedy. First up is Ealing classic Kind Hearts And Coronets (20:15, Gold), which is most notable for Alec Guinness' virtuoso performance as eight different characters, all the victim of a murder plot. Following that is Bruce Robinson's bitingly satirical follow-up to Withnail & I, How To Get A Head In Advertising (23:00, Gold). Richard E Grant stars as a disillusioned ad exec determined to escape the rat race, only for the boil on his neck to develop a personality of its own and start to take over his body.

Til death do us part: Flatliners investigates the afterlife

UK box office Top 10
1. The Secret Life Of Pets
2. Independence Day: Resurgence
3. The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Case
4. Me Before You
5. The Nice Guys R
6. Alice Through The Looking Glass
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows
8. X-Men: Apocalypse R
9. The Jungle Book R
10. The Boss

R = Recommended

All information current at time of publication